upon her eldest son, she retaining the life-interest in it which her husband had meant her to have. Mr Summerhayes, who had been brought up for the bar, had himself advised Mr Gateshead in the drawing up of this important document. The new bridegroom was anxiously solicitous that the children should be portioned and the property distributed exactly as the family agent, who knew poor Clifford’s mind, would have advised him to settle it; and the deed was irrevocable and framed in the most careful manner, so that no ingenuity of the law could make it assailable hereafter. It was so rigid in all its provisions that poor Mary wavered a little over it. She thought it scarcely fair that _he_ should be shut out entirely from every interest in all this wealth, which, at the present moment, belonged absolutely to herself. It was Mr Summerhayes himself who put, with a certain gentle force, the pen into her hands, and pointed exactly to the spot where she was to sign. “I have _you_, Mary,” he said in her ear, as he leant over her to keep the parchment steady; and Mary Clifford signed away all her power and secured her children’s rights, with “a smile on her lip and a tear in her eye,” feeling to her heart the delicious flattery. What she possessed was nothing to him—he had _her_, and a kingdom could not make him happier. So said the tone of his whisper, the glance of his eye, and the echo of her heart. This living Love which stood by her side, securing so carefully that Harry Clifford’s wealth should go to Harry Clifford’s heirs, and seeking only herself for its own, completely swallowed up poor Clifford’s ghost, if that forlorn spirit might by chance be cognisant of what was passing. Mary remembered no more her qualms and misgivings; and the prospect before her—now that the very children had got used to it, had ceased either to oppose or to stand by her, and had fallen into natural excitement about the approaching festivities, the guests who were to be at Fontanel, the new dresses, the great event about to happen—looked as bright as the glowing day. CHAPTER V.—THE MARRIAGE.